Janet Reno has died
Janet Reno, the first female Attorney General of the United States has died after battling Parkinson's Disease for nearly two decades. I'm saddened by her death, but I'm going to slightly violate one of my own rules. Do not speak ill of the dead.
First though, let me give her credit where credit is due. She was not Bill Clinton's first choice to become the nation's first female Attorney General. Zoe Baird was his first choice, but it turned out that she had hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny and failed to pay the required household employee taxes. Then the president nominated Kimba Wood but she had also employed an illegal immigrant nanny. Janet Reno did not have the baggage of the prior nominees and she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
She served as Attorney General for a longer period than anyone since William Wirt, who left that office in 1829.
She was in charge of the Department of Justice when DOJ managed to:
Capture and convict the Unabomber
Capture and convict Timothy McVeigh & Terry Nichols
Capture and conviction of the World Trade Center bombers
During that same tenure, the following took place on her watch:
The leak that incorrectly identified Richard Jewell as a possible suspect in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games bomb plot.
Authorized the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco (which will probably be her primary legacy).
Made the decision to return Elian Gonzales to his father.
Was recommended by the House Government and Reform Committee to be cited for contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena for documents in the impeachment proceeding against President Clinton (the documents were ultimately provided).
But what really bothers me about Ms Reno's actions were those she undertook as the Florida State Attorney for Dade County (now Miami-Dade County). I was stationed there when she was appointed to that position in 1978.
In 1980 she was the lead prosecutor in the trial of four police officers in the beating death in 1979 of Arthur McDuffie, an African-American insurance salesman. The quartet had been the subject of a total of 47 civilian complaints and 13 investigations by the Internal Affairs unit of the Dade County Public Safety Department. Two other cops were charged as accessories. All were acquitted and the judge in the trial stated publicly that the state had failed to prove its case.
That led to the Miami Riots of 1980. Following the not guilty verdicts, protesters began dragging whites out of cars driving in the area of Liberty City from their cars and beating them to death. Maybe I take this personally because I drove through that area a few hours earlier. But for the luck of timing, I could have died there that day. When it was over, 18 were dead, over 350 injured and over $100 million in 1980 dollars in property was destroyed. It wasn't her only failure as State Attorney but it was by far the worst.
None of this should detract from Ms Reno's achievement in breaking the glass ceiling to be our nation's first female Attorney General. It was extraordinary, on the part of President Clinton for nominating her and for the woman herself for enduring the incredibly scrutiny in the wake of the two failed nominees that preceded her. But I've needed to vent this for ages and I'm glad I did.
RIP, Ms Reno.
First though, let me give her credit where credit is due. She was not Bill Clinton's first choice to become the nation's first female Attorney General. Zoe Baird was his first choice, but it turned out that she had hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny and failed to pay the required household employee taxes. Then the president nominated Kimba Wood but she had also employed an illegal immigrant nanny. Janet Reno did not have the baggage of the prior nominees and she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
She served as Attorney General for a longer period than anyone since William Wirt, who left that office in 1829.
She was in charge of the Department of Justice when DOJ managed to:
Capture and convict the Unabomber
Capture and convict Timothy McVeigh & Terry Nichols
Capture and conviction of the World Trade Center bombers
During that same tenure, the following took place on her watch:
The leak that incorrectly identified Richard Jewell as a possible suspect in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games bomb plot.
Authorized the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco (which will probably be her primary legacy).
Made the decision to return Elian Gonzales to his father.
Was recommended by the House Government and Reform Committee to be cited for contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena for documents in the impeachment proceeding against President Clinton (the documents were ultimately provided).
But what really bothers me about Ms Reno's actions were those she undertook as the Florida State Attorney for Dade County (now Miami-Dade County). I was stationed there when she was appointed to that position in 1978.
In 1980 she was the lead prosecutor in the trial of four police officers in the beating death in 1979 of Arthur McDuffie, an African-American insurance salesman. The quartet had been the subject of a total of 47 civilian complaints and 13 investigations by the Internal Affairs unit of the Dade County Public Safety Department. Two other cops were charged as accessories. All were acquitted and the judge in the trial stated publicly that the state had failed to prove its case.
That led to the Miami Riots of 1980. Following the not guilty verdicts, protesters began dragging whites out of cars driving in the area of Liberty City from their cars and beating them to death. Maybe I take this personally because I drove through that area a few hours earlier. But for the luck of timing, I could have died there that day. When it was over, 18 were dead, over 350 injured and over $100 million in 1980 dollars in property was destroyed. It wasn't her only failure as State Attorney but it was by far the worst.
None of this should detract from Ms Reno's achievement in breaking the glass ceiling to be our nation's first female Attorney General. It was extraordinary, on the part of President Clinton for nominating her and for the woman herself for enduring the incredibly scrutiny in the wake of the two failed nominees that preceded her. But I've needed to vent this for ages and I'm glad I did.
RIP, Ms Reno.
posted by me at 7:51 AM
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